De Blasio and the "Heavy Hand of Government"

According to the New York Post's financial writer Charles Gasparino, newly elected New York City mayor Bill De Blasio has made it clear that he is "no freemarketeer".Speaking before a group of private real estate developers before the election, De Blasio openly admitted "Everything you heard about me is true.... I am not a free marketer... I believe in the heavy hand of government."

None of this, of course, is news. De Blasio's colored past, from supporting the Soviet Union and the Communist Sandanistas to illegally honeymooning in Cuba, was widely covered in the press during the election. New Yorkers clearly knew what they were getting. As one person wryly commented on the story on Breitbart, "They are just jealous of Detroit's success."

What is noteworthy is after all the rhetoric in the public discourse regarding "fair share," "trickle down economics," and "social justice" etc., you still rarely see a clear discussion of the choices between capitalism and socialism. The Left speaks in metaphors and avoids the obvious. If they are saying capitalism does not work, what are they suggesting we replace it with? They cannot bring themselves to say the word "socialism" and roll their eyes when the right calls them out on it -- because they know the stigma of failure that is attached to the system.

The administration of the most polarizing president in American history, however, seems to finally be bringing this clash of philosophies to a head. The left is becoming more and more emboldened by the economic and historical ignorance of many American voters and, in some instances, is in a position to unilaterally impose its ideas upon the people. One example is ObamaCare and another is the administration of the city of New York which has been given over to a radical ideologue who rightly feels he has been given a mandate to impose a Marxist regime in America's largest city. We all know how this is going to end for New York and it is not going to be pretty.

It is a classical theorem of guerilla warfare that the movement starts with small, localized, hit and run raids. It then expands to more ambitious attacks on the central power by larger units and finally, if all goes well, turns into major, head-on engagements with large military formations in setpiece battles. As a result of their decades-long undermining of American institutions -- academia, media and political, culminating in the reelection of Barack Obama, it seems to signal that the time has come for the final stage. They are now openly saying who they are and, while this will get worse before it gets better, it is overall in the best interest of America that we know exactly what is at stake and what we are fighting over. What happens in New York will be a petri dish for what Obama has in mind for the entire country and the results will be visible for everyone to see. We can only hope the right lesson is finally learned. Once freedom is lost it is rarely recovered.

Victor Keith writes from Burbank, California and can be contacted at victorakeith.com

According to the New York Post's financial writer Charles Gasparino, newly elected New York City mayor Bill De Blasio has made it clear that he is "no freemarketeer".

Speaking before a group of private real estate developers before the election, De Blasio openly admitted "Everything you heard about me is true.... I am not a free marketer... I believe in the heavy hand of government."

None of this, of course, is news. De Blasio's colored past, from supporting the Soviet Union and the Communist Sandanistas to illegally honeymooning in Cuba, was widely covered in the press during the election. New Yorkers clearly knew what they were getting. As one person wryly commented on the story on Breitbart, "They are just jealous of Detroit's success."

What is noteworthy is after all the rhetoric in the public discourse regarding "fair share," "trickle down economics," and "social justice" etc., you still rarely see a clear discussion of the choices between capitalism and socialism. The Left speaks in metaphors and avoids the obvious. If they are saying capitalism does not work, what are they suggesting we replace it with? They cannot bring themselves to say the word "socialism" and roll their eyes when the right calls them out on it -- because they know the stigma of failure that is attached to the system.

The administration of the most polarizing president in American history, however, seems to finally be bringing this clash of philosophies to a head. The left is becoming more and more emboldened by the economic and historical ignorance of many American voters and, in some instances, is in a position to unilaterally impose its ideas upon the people. One example is ObamaCare and another is the administration of the city of New York which has been given over to a radical ideologue who rightly feels he has been given a mandate to impose a Marxist regime in America's largest city. We all know how this is going to end for New York and it is not going to be pretty.

It is a classical theorem of guerilla warfare that the movement starts with small, localized, hit and run raids. It then expands to more ambitious attacks on the central power by larger units and finally, if all goes well, turns into major, head-on engagements with large military formations in setpiece battles. As a result of their decades-long undermining of American institutions -- academia, media and political, culminating in the reelection of Barack Obama, it seems to signal that the time has come for the final stage. They are now openly saying who they are and, while this will get worse before it gets better, it is overall in the best interest of America that we know exactly what is at stake and what we are fighting over. What happens in New York will be a petri dish for what Obama has in mind for the entire country and the results will be visible for everyone to see. We can only hope the right lesson is finally learned. Once freedom is lost it is rarely recovered.

Victor Keith writes from Burbank, California and can be contacted at victorakeith.com